In past, a sliding member in which a sliding layer is formed on a metallic base has been often used. For example, in a sliding member used in a motor vehicle or construction machinery, it has been configured that a steel plate which has a high mechanical strength supports high load and a sliding layer which is made of lubricant copper-based alloy having a low mechanical strength smoothly slides a body to be slid. Regarding such a sliding member, a thermal spraying has been proposed as a method of forming a sliding layer on a surface of a supporting layer which is a steel plate. The thermal spraying means melting a metal that is different from a metallic base and has a desired characteristic by means of combustion gas, plasma, arc or the like, and attaching the melted metal onto a surface of the metallic base by spraying and applying it to the surface thereof through a nozzle together with compressed air.
According to this thermal spraying, because a metal is attached to the supporting layer by the thermal spraying, even when the supporting layer is a plane or an optional non-plane such as a spherical surface, it is possible to form a sliding layer having a sliding surface along a shape of a surface of the supporting layer (see, for example, the patent document 1).